Vatthal Kozhumbu

Ingredients:
1. Imli (tamarind)
2. Tablespoon oil
3. Pinch Mustard seeds
4. Pinch chenna (or toor) dhal
5. 2-4 red dried crushed chilies
6. 2-4 green chilies cut lengthwise
7. Pinch ING (Asafetida)
8. 4-6 curry leaves (or more as per your taste)
9. Pinch vendhyam (Fenugreek seeds)
10. 4 cups water
11. 2 tsp sambar powder
12. Pinch turmeric
13. Salt to taste
14. 20-30 sundakkai vathals (or as per your taste)
15. 1 to 4 tsp rice flour

Method:

Step 1:
If you have block Imli (ingredient #1) soak a golf ball size of this in warm water (1 cup) until soft. This can be done while doing other steps.

Step 2.
For ingredients 2-9. Heat oil and add mustard seeds (ingredients 2 and 3), when they pop, add ingredients 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. Fry till they are browned. Put to the side.

Step 3:
Strain and squeeze the water out of the soaked imli pieces out and put he 'imli water' in a sauce pan. Heat it adding 3 more cups water (adding four for #10) sambar powder (#11), turmeric (#12) and salt (#13). Also add all the fried spices at this time (from step 2.) Heat till a rolling boil for 5-10 minutes. More salt may also be added at the end as per your taste.

Step 4:
Dry fry the vatthals till a smell comes. Add the vatthals to the liquid and continue boiling.

Step 5:
This will be liquidy, whereas kozhumbu should be thick. To thicken we add rice flour (#15). Leaving the heat on, while boiling, add one teaspoon, and stir, wait a few minutes, stir it. Keep adding one more teaspoon of the rice flour and stirring until it is slightly thick. Four teaspoons should be enough.

**Kozhumbus com in different varieties. Kozhumbu is a thicker sambar. The closest translation for Kozumbu in English is gravy.

Keep this sitting for some time before eating. It is really good if you eat it later in the day or the next day, the flavor will be very nice.

Eat in small quantities with plain rice or curd (yogurt) rice.

There are also various kinds of vatthals. It may be possible to substitute another variety of vatthal in this recipe for another.

This recipe was originally posted in my yahoo group.
Photo in post taken by Jennifer Kumar.

Other Vatthal Kozhumbu Recipes
Vatral Kuzhambu - Sriranjini